The Fourfold GospelP A R T F I R S T.THE PERIOD OF CHRIST'S LIFE PRIOR TO
HIS MINISTRY.I.LUKE'S PREFACE AND DEDICATION.cLUKE I. 1-4.*

c1 Forasmuch as many
[of whom we know nothing and have even no tradition]
have taken in hand to draw up a narrative concerning those matters
which have been fulfilled
[completed, or accomplished according to the divine will]
among us,
2 even as they delivered them unto us, which from the beginning
were eyewitnesses
[the apostles were necessarily such and there were some few
others--Acts i. 21-23]
and ministers of the word
[the apostles were ministers, and not ecclesiastical dignitaries], 3; it seemed good to me also, having traced the course of
all things accurately from the first
[and being therefore thoroughly fitted to write the gospel],to write unto thee in order
[not in chronological, but in topical order],most excellent Theophilus
[Luke also dedicated the Book of Acts to this man. Nothing is known of
Theophilus, but he is supposed to have been a Greek of high official
rank]; 4 that thou mightest know the certainty
[might have a
[1]
fixed written record, and not trust to a floating, variable
tradition or a treacherous memory]
concerning the things
[the gospel facts]
wherein thou wast instructed.

*
NOTE.--The four Gospels are respectively
represented in this volume by the superior letters a, b, c, and d; and
variations in the readings of the four Gospels are inserted in braces,
thus: { }.